Friday, June 3, 2011

While most of the manufacturers are considering hybrid and electric vehicles, Mercedes is considering a diesel version of the GLK crossover for the US market.

During an interview at the Los Angeles Auto Show, Mercedes-Benz USA President Ernst Lieb said: "We’ve got the GLK coming. And the next-generation C-Class sedan will share the 2.2L 4-cylinder clean-diesel engine that bears the brand’s Bluetec trademark. The C-Class will feature diesel availability right from the start when it arrives in 2013." The E-Class will also get a new diesel engine starting 2011. All of these new engines will include Mercedes new BlueTec technology.

You can see that Mercedes has big plans for diesel engines in the US market: "Overall, our goal is to be somewhere in the range of 15% to 20%,” he says. “And we’re slowly growing this."

This is quite an impressive move considering Mercedes recently had to recall about 2,300 2011 diesel models, including the M-Class, GL-Class, E-Class, and R-Class, due to leaky fuel filters.